The Teachers of St Patrick's present gifts to the Suffolk Community
Suffolk – St. Patrick’s Grenada British Council Global Schools’ Partnership
Sharing with each other; learning from each other; moving forward together
On 7 October 2011 seven teachers from St. Patrick’s, Grenada led by Mr. David Hopkin, Principal of St. Patrick’s R.C. Primary School arrived in Suffolk as part of a partnering initiative developed between Suffolk, United Kingdom and St. Patrick’s, Grenada.
The Welcome Ceremony for the teachers, held at Coldfair Primary School, was met with performances from children, welcoming words from schools and officers and a performance of patriotic songs from Grenada by the St. Patrick’s teachers. The First Secretary at the Grenada High Commission, Ms. Feona Sandy, addressed the gathering commending the extraordinary contribution of all parties involved which led to the advancement of the partnership into the success it was today. She noted the link between the challenges of globalisation and strategies such as twinning between schools globally that could address these cross-border challenges.
The visit was an extremely useful one with the St Patrick’s teachers all linked to different schools across Suffolk, working in classrooms and planning curriculum projects with their link school. The teachers garnered techniques and ideas in Suffolk for application towards development of their schools in Grenada.
It is expected that seven Suffolk primary teachers will visit St. Patrick’s Grenada in February 2012 in continuation of the partnership.
Originating from personal contacts established by Derek Merrill, an officer with the Suffolk County Council Learning and Improvement Service, and his wife Judith, a nursery teacher in Ipswich, with Dorrian Philip, a librarian in Sauteurs, the Suffolk – St. Patrick’s Grenada partnership was approved by the Ministry of Education in August 2010. Since then the collaboration has moved from strength to strength paving the way not only for the development of teaching techniques for primary school teachers of both Suffolk and St Patrick’s but by extension to motivation of the students to learn more about each other’s countries and Regions of the World.
The programme, which linked each primary school in St. Patrick’s, as well as MacDonald College, to a school in Suffolk, commenced in February 2011, with a visit to St. Patrick’s by seven primary teachers, one high school teacher and two local authority officers from Suffolk, supported by funding from the British Council. The Prime Minister of Grenada, the Hon. Tillman Thomas attended the Welcome Ceremony.
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